Is live feeding really that bad?

[Zincubus]

Your "over all the years" experience isn't even a drop in a bucket in the grand scheme. Most of the snakes you listed would eat a scented stone if you threw it at them so that doesn't much help either.

Let's go hypothetical and say that I decided to agree with you that every snake can eventually be coaxed to willingly feed on f/t prey. How long can we ethically wait before resorting to assist feeding? Why don't you feel obligated to exhaust all methods of food presentation, including live, as a responsible owner who has decided to keep these animals? You're keeping snakes as pets - for the most part, animals that don't slither around scavenging meals. Sure, some species will jump on f/t right out of the gate, but not all. Is this really a more ethical solution than feeding a live rodent? What about for the snake? Shouldn't they be offered the courtesy of a full stomach without us starving them out first or heaping stress on them by shoving something, unwanted, into their gullet?

You've conveniently disregarded the part where I mentioned I've kept over 30 Royals / Balls who are notoriously fussy / poor feeders and they've all taken defrosted frozen with no issues whatsoever ..... Yet so many in here seemingly haven't been quite so lucky .... I've never even got close to considering assist or force feeding .